octal

[ok-tl]

adjective

1. Also of or relating to the number system with base 8, employing the numerals 0 through 7.

2. relating to or encoded in an octal system, especially for use by a digital computer.

3. (of an electronic device) having eight pins in its base for electrical connections.

noun

1. octonary.

octal

1. Relating to a number system having a base of 8. Each place in an octal number represents a power of 8. Octal notation has often been used in computer programming because three-digit binary numbers are readily converted into one-digit octal numbers from 0 to 7.

Word History and Origins

Origin of octal¹

First recorded in 1935–40; oct- + -al ¹

Example Sentences

“You’d punch one number wrong into a card, and you got a bunch of wasted paper … just a bunch of octal numbers that didn’t mean anything.”

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Some machines were decimal, others binary and others used octal or hexadecimal schemes.

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The contents of octal digits 0-5 of the index register location are unaffected by this instruction.

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Once upon a time, these magic numbers were PDP-11 branch instructions that skipped over header data to the start of executable code; the 0407, for example, was octal for `branch 16 bytes relative'.

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The first bit of octal digit 2 is the indirect address bit.

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